'Why do you tell me at all?'
'To relieve you from anxiety if I succeed in removing him. To let you know if I should fail of the attempt, of the earnest desire, to serve you, although you make it very hard.'
Messer Corsario was hurrying towards them, a volume in his hands.
She stood there, silent, stricken, not knowing what to believe, desiring hungrily to trust Bellarion, yet restrained by every known action in his past.
'If I live, madonna,' he said quietly, lowering his voice to a murmur, 'you shall yet ask me to forgive your cruel unbelief.'
Then he turned to meet Corsario's chuckling triumph, and to submit that the pedant should convict him of error.
'Not so great a scholar as he believes himself, this Messer Bellarion,' Corsario noisily informed the Princess. And then to Bellarion, himself: 'You'll dispute with soldiers, sir, in future, who lack the learning and the means to put you right. Here are the lines; here in "Trimalchio's Supper," as I said. See for yourself.'
Bellarion saw. He simulated confusion. 'My apologies, Messer Corsario, for having given you the trouble to fetch the book. You win the trick.'
It was an inauspicious word. To Valeria it was clear that the trick had lain in temporarily removing Messer Corsario's inconvenient presence, and that trick Bellarion had won.
She moved away now with her ladies who had drawn close upon Corsario's approach, and Bellarion was left to endure the pedant's ineffable company until supper-time.